Kinderhook Industries has acquired Chemtron Corporation from CapitalWorks which acquired the company in November 2015.
Chemtron is a provider of hazardous and non-hazardous waste management services including blending, storage, recycling, transportation. The company operates two RCRA (the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) treatment, storage and disposal facilities, two 10-day facilities, a non-hazardous waste processing facility, and a railcar and intermodal container processing facility.
Additional field and technical services include compliance training, testing, emergency response, demolition, plant closure, industrial cleaning and environmental consulting. Chemtron, led by CEO Rob Swords, was founded in 1964 and is headquartered near Cleveland in Avon, OH (www.chemtron-corp.com).
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Kinderhook who shares our vision for the future of Chemtron,” said Mr. Swords. “Chemtron will continue its legacy of providing best in class service to its customers with a focus on safety and compliance.”
“Chemtron represents an extremely unique set of assets in the sector,” said Rob Michalik, a managing director at Kinderhook. “The company’s diverse processing capabilities and ability to accept a wide range of waste streams is an enormous advantage in the marketplace as clients are increasingly focused on diversion and reuse of their waste.”
Joining the board of Chemtron are Kinderhook operating partners Brandon Velek, the chairman of CIRCON, a La Porte, TX-based provider of hazardous and non-hazardous waste management services and a portfolio company of Kinderhook; and Ken Wunderlich, the former CFO of Environmental Quality Company, a provider of waste treatment and disposal services which Kinderhook owned from 2008 to 2014.
Kinderhook makes control investments in companies with transaction values of $25 million to $150 million in which the firm can achieve financial, operational and growth improvements. The firm makes investments in non-core divisions of public companies, management buyouts of entrepreneurial-owned businesses, troubled situations, and existing small-capitalization companies lacking institutional support. Sectors of interest include healthcare services, environmental/business services, and automotive/light manufacturing. Kinderhook was founded in 2003 and is based in New York (www.kinderhook.com).
CapitalWorks, the seller of Chemtron, invests in companies with enterprise values of $15 million to $60 million, revenues of $15 million to $75 million, and EBITDA of $3 million to $9 million. Sectors of interest include niche manufacturing, value-added distribution, business services, aerospace and defense, and specialty chemicals. The firm was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Cleveland (www.capitalworks.net).
Brown Gibbons Lang was the financial advisor to Chemtron and financing for this acquisition was provided by Comerica Bank.
© 2019 Private Equity Professional | August 16, 2019
